The cops caused all the problems at the October Critical Mass
ride. If they hadn't been there, the usual mellow good time
would have prevailed. But there are some among us who think
"real politics" or at least "real militance" means facing off
with the cops. People who think it's radical to get into fights
with the police just haven't thought it through. In fact, most
of the time, such people are not inclined to think anything
through and prefer to imagine that "thinking" is part of the
problem and what is needed is "action." For those who may have
to engage in this argument, or who are open-minded enough to
consider the fallacies of their own assumptions, here’s the
rub:

The cops are the domestic equivalent of the military. They
are well-armed, well-trained and can ALWAYS bring more force to
bear than any opposing group. Attempts to push mass political
action (like Critical Mass) into violent confrontations with
the law are attempts to militarize social opposition. Once
militarized, the process of any social movement becomes
narrowed: clandestinity, cells, arms, secrecy, unknown leaders
calling the shots (often at the expense of innocent bystanders),
and so on. This process guarantees defeat because they can
always bring in bigger guns and more troops. Worse still, our
own activity loses its basis in pleasure and conviviality and
becomes an urgent, scary duty rife with danger. And even if
the militant street fighters win a skirmish here and there,
what's accomplished? Few people identify with the "militant"
activities, and any vision of a different way of life is
utterly lost in the predictability and mundanity of this kind of
ostensible opposition. Finally, militance of this sort strongly
reinforces the police state. Without foolish young men running
around posing as radicals and picking fights with cops/rich
people/car drivers/etc. how can the cops justify their
repressive behavior towards political dissent? The cops need
rioters just as much as these rioters need cops. If there
weren't individuals whose politics led them to fight police,
the police would have to hire actors to fulfill this function.
Police have often employed agents provocateurs to incite
violence when masses of people had better ideas.

This is not an argument for pacifism. Pacifism is a basically
religious concept holding that superior moral behavior (absolute
nonviolence) will ultimately shame the oppressors into
abandoning their ideas/values/power. That seems very naive,
especially in light of the ease with which the U.S. and its
puppets have employed death squads against anyone or any
movement that has opposed their interests (remember, most Latin
American death squad members were trained at the U.S. Southern
Command facilities in Panama). When violence is brought to bear
on us, we should be ready to defend ourselves by any means
necessary. But it is crazy and self-defeating to hasten this
process, and actually we should be actively trying to prevent
it as long as possible, even if we can see that realistically
it will come eventually.

— The Central Committee for Decentralization
November 1993

A challenge to the "Real
Militants" out there:

You want real action? You want to strike a heavy blow against
the status quo? You think anything short of direct confrontative
action is boring and a cop-out (so to speak!)? Well, what better
time than during the Critical Mass on the last working Friday of
the month? Get together with your associates (you know who they
are) and plan an action that takes place far away from the
Critical Mass and the dozens of police it has tied down
directing traffic. Five to twenty-five militants on bikes could
hit-and-run any of several dozen symbolic and meaningful targets
with propaganda strikes or more. If you are bound and determined
to follow this well-known, utterly predictable path of anarchic
exemplary acts (vandalism, graffiti, looting, etc.), go ahead
and do it, but don't do it as parasites on the Critical Mass!
Critical Mass is actually trying to follow a different path
which involves hundreds of self-motivated, self-responsible
participants creating a pleasurable social space of direct
face-to-face communication while riding bicycles through the
streets, making the implicit critique of the auto/oil/throw-away
society. You don't have to like what we’re up to, but you have
no right to impose your narrow, unimaginative, hormonal behavior
on the rest of us! Take your anger somewhere else and HAVE
FUN!

For over two years the San Francisco Police Department has
tried different tactics to either break up Critical Mass or
bring it under our control. In spite of our best efforts to
demoralize and intimidate you, your numbers have grown
dramatically and we have been forced to tolerate you. We have
even tried to appear supportive in the hope of gaining your
passive acceptance of our leadership and authority.

Now that you've started splitting into two groups we have
decided to again increase our efforts to take over. Our demands
are circulating on a less direct flyer, but make no mistake
— nothing worries us more than a free, uncontrolled public
space ... why, you don't even have any low-level merchandising
going on!!

You never asked for police escorts, and for the first six
months actually had things well organized and safe without us!
But this is a terrible threat to the American Way of Life and we
are at the Mass to make sure you don't get even more ideas about
doing away with organized government! We don't want to get
violent — er, ah, well, yes we do. In fact, we can barely
restrain ourselves as it is, so don't try us! If it weren't for
the wimps making policy we'd have busted your heads and stopped
this lunacy long ago. So if you persist in organizing yourselves
without central leadership and continue to flaunt the accepted
rituals of political demonstrations, watch out! You may not want
us here, but if you can't work with us, WE'LL TAKE YOUR BALL AND
GO HOME!